Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/237

Rh of Lord Churchill in this county, a clutch of six Redstarts' eggs, all more or less boldly spotted with brown. The value of my "find," however, was sadly discounted by the fact of the eggs being on the point of hatching. In Mr. C. Dixon's same work, and at the bottom of the same page, it is alleged that Hedge-Sparrows' eggs are the only ones with which those of the Redstart can be confused in our islands. In my opinion, the latter bear a far more striking resemblance to Pied Flycatchers' than to Hedge-Sparrows' eggs, compare them how you will. Not only in grain and colour, but also in size and shape, Redstarts' eggs, I contend, approximate more nearly to those of the Pied Flycatcher. The highly polished shell to which some writers so pointedly invite attention as a distinguishing feature of the egg of the Redstart, I have never been discriminating enough to notice.

The song of the Redstart I am inclined to characterize as unequal. I have frequently been astounded by the melody flowing from the throat of this little bird, but on such occasions it has almost always been perched amidst the uppermost branches of lofty poplars, and April has invariably been the month when I have heard it warbling what I deem its most fascinating notes. It is many years now since I was first attracted by its song under such circumstances; and having previously regarded it as merely a mediocre performer, and as one that usually sang from a lower level, I brought my fieldglasses to bear on the songster, to avoid any risk of blundering; and what I then observed was recorded in my note-book on the spot. Subsequent meetings with the Redstart in April in Ireland, Wales, and other wide-distant portions of these islands, have not led me to alter the opinion I formed of its carol as delivered from the upper branches of a Leicestershire poplar—long, long ago.

In support of what I have written above, it gives me satisfaction to quote from Mudie's 'British Birds,' published in 1853, as follows:—"When the males arrive, they sing from elevated perches; but after the operations of nesting are begun, they sing lower, and always within a short distance of the nest." While, somewhat curiously, in the same connection and evidently pursuing the same train of thought, Seebohm wrote exactly thirty years later:—"It may also be noticed that the Redstart, directly after its arrival in April, seeks the tree-tops for his orchestra; but as the summer